NEW YORK -- It seemed fitting that Min Jin Lee, the South Korea born, Ivy League educated author of the recently published novel "Pachinko," would choose the curious tastes of Cuban-Chinese food for a chat over lunch in Manhattan. She knew exactly what she wanted from the menu, mixing aromatic Chinese dishes with Cuban fried plantain bananas.
Born in South Korea and now based in New York, Korean-American writer MJL, pictured here in central Tokyo, is equally at home in Asia and the West. (Photo by Kerry Raftis for KEYSHOTS.COM) Having moved to New York from Seoul with her family as a child, Lee has endeavored in her writing to provide a voice for Asian immigrants. "Pachinko," her second novel, follows four generations of Koreans as they leave their homeland in the Japanese occupied Korean Empire to settle in Japan in the early 1900s.
